1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a connector for electrically connecting a plurality of terminals together, and more specifically, to a connector that enables reduction in the insertion load when device terminals are fitted to a plurality of connector terminals.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a connector structure for electrically connecting terminals together, for example, a structure is known in which two bus bar terminals each having a bolt hole are placed one on another in such a manner that the bolt holes thereof communicate with each other and these bus bar terminals are fastened by a bolt inserted through such bolt holes (hereinafter, referred to as first conventional structure). In the first conventional structure, it is necessary to place the two bus bar terminals one on another in such a manner that the formed bolt holes communicate with each other and fasten them by inserting a bolt into the communicating bolt holes. Therefore, when a plurality of pairs of bus bar terminals are connected, since it is necessary to make all the bolt holes of the bus bar terminals to be connected communicate with each other and then, fasten the bolts inserted in the communicating bolt holes a plurality of number of times, the work is cumbersome, and this is liable to lead to deterioration in the assemblability and productivity of the connector.
Therefore, as a connector structure connecting terminals together without such bolting, a structure in which male and female terminals are fitted together (hereinafter, referred to as second conventional structure) is also widely used. In the second conventional structure, a male terminal is inserted into a female terminal and a contact spring contained in the female terminal is pressed against the contact of the male terminal, thereby electrically connecting these terminals. Since bolting for connecting the terminals together is unnecessary for this reason, it is necessary to insert the male terminal into the female terminal against the pushing force (spring reaction force) of the contact spring while making the contact of the male terminal abut on the contact spring of the female terminal when the terminals are connected, and this requires a predetermined insertion force. Consequently, when a plurality of male and female terminals are simultaneously connected, since the pushing forces of the contact springs are superimposed, the insertion force increases accordingly, and this is liable to lead to deterioration in the assemblability and productivity of the connector as in the first conventional structure.
To reduce such an insertion force, for example, a connector structure is disclosed in JP-A-2011-18579 in which two bus bar terminals are previously placed one on another into a temporary contact state, these bus bar terminals are sandwiched by a contact spring provided on a movable block member and a plurality of pairs of bus bar terminals are simultaneously connected. According to such a connector structure, by pushing the block member with a bolt toward the bus bar terminals placed one on another, the contact spring advances to such bus bar terminals together with the block member against the pushing force of the contact spring and sandwiches them, so that the condition changes from the temporary contact condition to a contact condition of being pressed by the contact spring and these terminals are electrically connected.
However, in the connector structure disclosed in JP-A-2011-18579, it is necessary to previously insert the connecting side connector into the connected side connector so that the bus bar terminals of the connecting side and connected side connectors are placed one on another into the temporary contact state, so that if the number of bus bar terminals to be brought into the temporary contact state is increased, the insertion work is still complicated accordingly. Moreover, it is necessary to situate the movable block member where a plurality of contact springs are provided, on the connecting side connector in consideration of the pushing forces of the contact springs. Therefore, not only the number of parts increases but it is necessary to structure the connector in consideration of the adjustment of the pushing forces of the contact springs as well.